The document is a student project report by M. Ragul on how to feed the planet without destroying it. It discusses the challenges of meeting the food needs of the current and future global population in a sustainable way. It proposes alternatives like stopping deforestation, improving productivity and resource efficiency, changing diets, and reducing food waste. It also discusses how corporations are integrating sustainability practices but some indicators like investments and certifications are slowing or declining due to economic pressures.

1. HOW TO FEED THE
PLANET WITHOUT
DESTROYING THE
PLANET?
BY:
M.RAGUL
GRADE: XII
GENERAL STUDIES

2. Contents
 CERTIFICATE
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
 INTRODUCTION
 CHALLENGES
 ALTERNATIVES
 CORPORATE SUSTAINABLITY
 BIBILIOGRAPHY

3. This is to certify that this ‘General Studies
Project’ on the topic ‘How To Feed The Planet
Without Destroying The Planet’ has been
successfully completed by the student ‘M.Ragul’
of grade XII under the guidance of Mrs. Sundari
in particular fulfilment of the curriculum of
Central Board Of Secondary Education (CBSE)
leading to the award of annual examination of the
academic year 2017-18.
Teacher-In-Charge External Examiner
CERTIFICATE

4. I have put maximum effort in this project. However, it would
have not been possible without the kind support and help of
many individual.
I would like to thank my principal Mrs.V.Vijayalakshmi and
school for providing me with facilities required to do my
project.
I am highly indebted to my social science teacher, Mrs.Sundari
for her invaluableguidance which has sustained my efforts in all
the stages of this project work.
I would also like to thank my parents for their continuous
support and encouragement.
My thanks and appreciationsalso go to my fellow classmates
and the laboratoryassistant in developing the project and to the
peoplewho have willingly helped me out of their abilities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

5. Introduction
 Although it's not often addressed in the larger business
world, food is a hot-buttonissue for everyone on the
planet, but perhaps much more so than almost anyone
knows.
 In fact, according to Jon Foley, director of the University
of Minnesota's Institute of the Environment, making
agriculture more productive and more sustainableis
probablythe single biggest environmentalchallenge of
the 21st century.
 Foley laid out his case during the first One Great Idea
session at the GreenBiz Forum in Minneapolis,the first
of three one-day events digging in to the findings of the
State of Green Business Report, publishedthis week by
GreenBiz Group.
 "How are we going to feed the world, and
simultaneouslydeal with sustainability?"Foley asked.
"That's the questionthat's been haunting me most
lately."Billed as"a businesscase for the Earth," Foley
discussed the three big challenges that agriculture faces
now, and five ways to overcome those challenges by
2050.

6. Challenges
Meeting The Needs Of The World's Population Today
There are about 7 billion people in the world now, and about 1 billion of
them are malnourished and don't necessarily know where their next meal is
coming from. Ironically, Foley said, there are also about a billion people in
the world who are overweight, which poses its own kind of challenges.

7. Meeting The Needs Of The Next Two Billion
Even with a billion people at risk of starvation every day, the numbers
are only going to get worse, as the global population climbs to an
estimated 9 billion by 2050. If we're struggling already to meet the
food challenge, how will we scale it up rapidly, given that it's taken us
10,000 years to get to our current agricultural production and we have
just 38 more years to double it. "I can tell you right now we are
nowhere near being able to do that," Foley said.
Doubling Food Production Sustainably
Right now, agriculture is the world's largest environmental problem,
Foley said, and it's only going to increase. Global food production
currently uses about 40 percent of the world's land, 70 percent of its
water, and is responsible for at least 35 percent -- and possibly 45
percent -- of the total greenhouse gas emissions from human
activity. Given the level of carbon emissions that we need to reach by
2050 to stem the worst impacts of climate change, it can't be done
without fundamentally changing agriculture.

8. ALTERNATIVES
1. Stop deforestation :
Grow more food, but not at the expense of rainforest and
savannahs and peat lands. "Let's stop growing agriculture, let's freeze
the footprint of agriculture to where we have it today." The expansion
of agriculture is the single biggest driver of species extinction in the
world.
2. Improve productivity :
If we can't expand agriculture's reach, we will have to
improve how much food we grow on the land we have. Foley said
that right now, most of the research and development funding that
goes to agriculture is working on making the world's best farms more
productive, rather than improving things at the bottom of the pyramid.
Foley said that across the world, there are tremendous opportunities to
significantly boost food production without using more land and
without harming the environment.
3. Improve resource efficiency :

9. Much of those improvements can come by being smarter
with the water, energy and chemicals we use to grow food today.
Foley said it takes on average one quart of water to create one calorie
of food energy. But that average varies widely: Israeli farmers can
grow food with one-tenth the water use, because they use highly
efficient drip irrigation. Meanwhile, in very similar climates in
northern India or Pakistan, farmers can use 20 to 30 liters of water per
calorie. "So between the most and the least efficient producers in the
world, there's a 200 to 300-fold difference in efficiency, and there are
huge opportunities to be saving water, energy and reducing pollution,
while growing the same amount of food," Foley said.
"Numbers four and five [on this list] are the ones that get me into a lot
of trouble, where I get death threats and stuff like that," Foley said.
"Seriously."
4. Change diets :
In the United States, only about 10 percent of the food
grown is for human consumption. The rest is for industry -- biofuels
and livestock feed, primarily. "If you look globally, 60 percent of our
crops are for humans and 40 percent is not -- we could change that
and feed many more people with less environment impact than we do
today," Foley said," "but it requires fundamental change at the
consumer level, retail level, and all the businesses in between."
5. Stop food waste :
Beyond growing lots of food for non-human use, we
waste a truly staggering amount of food: Foley said that 30 to 40
percent of the world's food is wasted.
These five steps -- ambitious and world-changing to say the very least
-- would together make it possible to double the world's food
production and cut the environmental impacts of agriculture by at
least half, and Foley thinks reductions along the lines of 80 percent
are more likely.
In closing, Foley suggested a new term for how to think about food
and farming.

10. "I think we need to move to an entirely new paradigm about feeding
the world, and doing it at the global scale with global strategies,"
Foley said. "Instead of calling it agriculture, which we've had for
10,000 years, maybe it's time for something new, what I like to call
terraculture, or farming for the whole planet."
Corporate
sustainability
If you think of the corporate sustainability movement as a ship -- a
huge, hulking, slow-moving and still-polluting ship -- new research
shows that the ship is still moving forward, but is taking on water and
struggling to pick up steam.
The fifth annual State of Green Business report, published today by
Joel Makower and the editors of GreenBiz.com, finds that while
progress is still happening insome areas, for the first time corporate
sustainability has slowed, stopped and in some places even reversed.

11. "What’s to blame? Simply put, sustainable business is suffering a
recessionary hangover," writes Joel Makower, Executive Editor of
GreenBiz.com and principal author of the report.
"People expected green investing and corporate sustainability efforts
to grind to a halt with the global recession in 2011. While some key
indicators such as cleantech investments and energy efficiency are
flattening or declining for the first time, we're seeing that companies
are more committed than ever to making sustainability a part of their
everyday business," Makower explained. "They're integrating green
practices into all levels of their company, and looking to
sustainability to drive innovation, reduce operating costs and in
many instances unlock new revenue opportunities."
The report tracks year-over-year data for 20 different areas of
corporate sustainability, ranging from overall carbon emissions to
corporate reporting to LEED green building certifications to the use
of toxic chemicals in manufacturing.
There's good and bad news in this year's report; the good news is that
companies continue to dedicate time, money and staff to setting and
meeting ambitious environmental goals -- the kind of news that we
cover every day on GreenBiz.com.
The bad news is that, despite this, our research shows a slowing of
momentum -- or even backwards motion, in some cases -- on some of
the indicators. Among the downgraded topics include investments in
clean technology innovations, overall energy intensity, certifications
of LEED buildings, and paper use and recycling.

12. In addition to a close look at each of the indicators -- swimming,
treading and sinking alike -- the report features the 10 trends that
will shape corporate sustainability in 2012. Among them:
Sustainable Consumption Gets Buy-in -- mainstream
companies are promoting smarter consumption, while mesh
companies offer services instead of products.
Green Gamification Scores Points -- companies are using the
power of games to reward customers and employees and
highlight green practices.
Cleantech Survives a Crisis of Confidence -- cleantech
investments are predicted to increase despite some big name
failures in 2011.
Energy Efficiency Gains Star Power -- high-profile
energy efficiency projects demonstrate potentially huge
savings.
"Big Data" Creates Big Opportunities -- tsunami of
information associated with the "internet of things" can
yield insights and improve technology efficiency.
Sustainable Cities Take Center Stage -- cities are setting
sustainability goals and investing in green infrastructure and
technology.
Non-News is Good News -- sustainability has become less
newsworthy as it is integrated into business as usual.
And for the first time this year, the State of Green Business Report
features contributions from global experts on sustainable business.
Among the contributors to the report include Amory Lovins,
discussing "Energy's Two Revolutions;" Jigar Shah on "Carbon's
Rising Costs, and Sinks;" Jonathan Koomey on "ICT and the Future
of Low-Energy Computing;" and Paul Simpson, CEO of the Carbon
Disclosure Project, writing about "What's Next for Carbon
Reporting."

13. The 2012 report is the centerpiece of GreenBiz's upcoming Green
Business Forums. The one-day events will take place in
Minneapolis on January 19, New York on January 24, and San
Francisco on Jan 30. For more information on the Forums, or to
download a free copy of "State of Green Business 2012," visit
GreenBiz.com.
Bibiliography
 www.scidev.net
 www.wikipedia.com
 www.greenbiz.com